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"The Unknown Citizen" was written by the British poet W.H. Auden, not long after he
moved to America in 1939. The poem is a kind of satirical elegy written in praise of a man
who has recently died and who lived what the government has deemed an exemplary life.
This life, really, seems to have been perfectly ho-hum—exemplary only insofar as this man
never did anything to question or deviate from society's expectations. On the one hand, the
poem implicitly critiques the standardization of modern life, suggesting that people risks
losing sight of what it means to be an individual when they focus exclusively on the same
status symbols and markers of achievement (like having the right job, the right number of
kids, the right car, and so forth). The poem also builds a frightening picture of a world ruled
by total conformity and state oppression, in which a bureaucratic government dictates and
spies on its citizens' daily lives.

“The Unknown Citizen” Summary

This marble monument has been created by the State to commemorate JS/07 M378.

According to the Bureau of Statistics, nobody ever made a formal complaint about him. The
other reports about his behavior all say that he was basically the perfect citizen, because he
did everything he was supposed to do in order to serve his society. He worked the same job
his entire life until he retired, apart from a break when he served in the War. His employer,
Fudge Motors Inc., was fine with him. He had a totally normal outlook on life and politics,
and he contributed to his Union (which, we've checked, was not a threat). Our Psychology
institution also established that his friends liked hanging out with him. According to the
Official Media, he bought a paper regularly and responded to adverts as was to be expected.
He had the proper insurance, and our official health records show he only needed to stay in
the hospital one time. The departments in charge of organizing society agree that he approved
of the State's vision and that he had all the possessions that a modern individual needs—like a
record player, radio, car, and fridge. Our Public Opinion department asserts that he always
held the right view on the big issues: if it was a peaceful time, he approved, but he also went
to war when we needed him to. He had a wife and five children, contributing the correct
number of new human beings to society according to our governmental official who aims to
optimize the gene pool. He let the children's teachers do their work without questioning their
teachings. It's ridiculous to ask if he was free or happy, because we would have known if
there was anything wrong with him.

“The Unknown Citizen” Themes

 Theme Oppression, Surveillance, and the State

Oppression, Surveillance, and the State

“The Unknown Citizen” is a parody of an elegy (a poem to commemorate someone who

has recently died). This elegy is delivered by "the State"—the government and its institutions
—rather than by a loving friend or family member. Through this, the poem pokes fun at and
implicitly critiques the modern world for granting too many far-reaching powers to the state,
showing how the state oppresses those unlucky enough to live within its grasp.

In particular, the poem looks at how this oppression is achieved through surveillance—
through the state knowing everything about its inhabitants. The title is thus ironic, as there's
little that the state doesn't seem to know about the dead man. Overall, the poem argues that
freedom is impossible in a society that so closely watches its citizens, even under the guise of
helping them live a supposedly good life.

Though on the surface the poem is praising the life of the dead “unknown citizen,” it
only does so because this person lived a textbook example of an obedient, non-questioning
life. In the poem’s world, a good citizen is one who does everything they’re is supposed to.
Indeed, that’s why the speaker—the creepy “we” of the poem—begins by offering what is
probably the highest compliment in this dystopia: “there was no official complaint” against
the dead man (according to the Bureau of Statistics). In other words, he never did anything
wrong. If he had, the state would “certainly have heard” about it—revealing the frightening
reach of their view into people's lives.

This points to one of the poem’s main criticisms of the state: its over-reaching
surveillance. The state treats life as a kind of science, improvable only through increasingly
detailed data sets—and denying life any sense of mystery, joy, or freedom in the process.
There is one way to be, this implies, and the surveillance is there to help (or, more likely,
force) the individual to be that way.

Accordingly, the state encroaches on every aspect of the dead man’s life. Indeed, the
poem reads pretty much as a list of all the ways that a state can violate its citizens’ freedoms.
The state approves of the dead man’s life because it knows so much about him: his working
life, sociability, opinions on the news, his personal possessions, his attitude to his children’s
education, and so on. There is a kind of parable at work here, as the poem implies that a state
with too much power will only use that power to sink its claws deeper and deeper into
people’s everyday lives.
 And not only does this oppressive state spy on its citizens, it also co-opts their language.
So while an alternative view of humanity might prioritize, say, happiness, a tight-knit
community, and moral virtue over everything being done correctly and by the book, the state
here has already got that covered. “Community,” “saint[lines],” and happiness have all been
re-defined to fit what the state wants, not just taking away people’s freedoms but eroding the
ways in which they can even conceive of those freedoms.

Overall, then, Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen” reads as a cautionary tale to modern
society—asking people to question the relationship between the state and the individual, and
to examine whether their government upholds the right values in terms of what it means to
live a good life. Ironic and a little funny, yes, the poem nevertheless offers a stark and bleak
picture of a sinister world in which genuine freedom is impossible.

Where this theme appears in the poem:

Before Line 1

Lines 1-29

Theme Standardization and Conformity

Standardization and Conformity

Closely tied to the poem's ideas about freedom, oppression, and surveillance are its
criticisms of the standardization and conformity it views as inherent to modern life. Written
against a backdrop of increasing mass production and industrialization, the poem describes
the dead citizen as “the Modern Man.” The poem displays an intense anxiety about the
direction of humanity’s travel during the 20th century, questioning whether the values that
seem important to this “Modern Man” are actually eroding what it means to be a human
being.

The poem implies that modern society, in an effort to optimize productivity and
happiness, has made everyone essentially the same and robbed life of the kind of
individuality that makes it meaningful in the first place. The state makes it out as if this man
was free to choose how he lived, yet the reality is that this choice was an illusion. Modern
society has told people what they should want and how they should live, which the poem
implies makes it impossible for people to actually think for themselves. In such a world, there
are right ways to live and wrong ways, and these are defined by the state. This man was thus
"a saint" only because he always held the “proper opinions”—the ones that were officially
sanctioned.
 And while much of this conformity was imposed upon the man by the government, the
poem argues that it came from elsewhere too. While its skewering of a surveillance state can
be read as an argument against strict government control and communism, its anxiety about
increasing mass production and industrialization is a knock against capitalism. For example,
the man's employer, “Fudge Motors Inc.,” clearly had a hand in making sure the man did
everything by the book. This suggests the role of giant corporations in the suppression of
individuality.

Indeed, the poem takes special aim at the world of advertising, suggesting that it sells
falsehoods about individual happiness that actually amount to further conformity. The dead
man’s “reactions to advertisements were normal”—he thought what he was supposed to think
—and, accordingly he bought all the items that advertisers wanted him to: a phonograph,
radio, car, and fridge. While advertising encourages people to make purchases as a way of
defining and expressing their individuality, here this is shown to be a lie.

The poem's repeated mention of increasing absurd governmental departments is another

way it makes fun of the standardization of modern life. There is seemingly a "bureau" for
everything in this society, which implies that this government desperately wants to control
every aspect of people's lives. The fact that some of this is framed as a way to make life
better, to optimize society though "High-Grade Living" and "Social Psychology"
departments. This is something the poem implicitly rejects as naive, ridiculous, and, with the
mention of an official "Eugenist," outright dangerous. (Remember that Auden wrote this
poem during WWII—when Nazi "eugenists" were murdering millions of Jews.)

Lurking under the surface of the poem is a question that strikes at the heart of this theme
—to what extent the dead citizen himself can be held responsible for his now life. He has no
voice in this poem whatsoever—which makes sense given his lack of individuality—but
perhaps he willingly surrendered some of his freedom in order to fit in. Auden leaves this
question open-ended, but it certainly speaks to contemporary obsessions with brands,
celebrity culture, and social media. That is, all three of these have the surface illusion of
enabling people to be themselves—to express who they really are. The poem thus implies
that people should always question and examine the values that they use to define their
freedoms and sense of individuality.

Where this theme appears in the poem:

Lines 6-15

Lines 18-24
 Lines 25-29

"The Unknown Citizen" is a sinister elegy delivered by the government for a man who has
recently died. There is tension between the contents of the elegy and the description of the
man as "unknown." In fact, this isn't an unidentified man, but rather one whom the
government seems to know everything about. The poem even begins with an inscription that
looks to be some sort of identification number! The poem, then, asks the reader to think about
other ways in which the man could be described as "unknown."

The poem opens by offering a general report about the man's life. Most of the poem
follows a similar formula—a specific institution offering its creepy approval of the man for
behaving in the "correct" way. This praise is, of course, steeped in irony—Auden's poem
criticizes over-bearing state control and invasive surveillance (and, perhaps, the man's own
willingness to conform). So it is the "Bureau of Statistics" that offers the dead man the high
praise that "there was no official complaint" against him. In other words, he never did
anything to upset the system. There was no particular praise of him either; he was considered
good just because he never did anything wrong (at least anything that the state knew about).

The fact that this ultimate judgement is issued by this particular institution speaks to a
particular ideology about human life and society—that it can be measured, understood, and
even improved by scientific statistical analysis (implying that there is no part of being human
that can't be quantified).

Lines 3 and 4 then state that numerous "reports" on the man's "conduct" are in
agreement that he "was a saint" and was a faithful servant of "the Greater Community." Here
Auden builds a wider picture of this dystopia of surveillance and suspicion. The dead man is
a "saint" not in the religious sense but in his obedience to the state, placing the state in a
powerful role akin to that of God in earlier centuries.

In this section, the state—which, it's worth remembering, is also the speaker here—co-
opts the language of humanity for its own purposes. So the notion of "community" is no
longer about genuine togetherness and empathy, but relates more to an individual playing
their role in fulfilling the state's vision for society—one in which everything is controlled and
micro-managed through bureaucracy and official authority. The capitalization of "Greater
Community" makes into just another state institution—like the "Bureau of Statistics"—rather
than something that develops organically within a society.
 The caesurae in line 4 (those pauses after "That" and "word") help the poem mimic the
rhythms of speech in a real elegy, showing another way in which the State imposes itself on
the language. Also notice how the rhythms and language in this section—and elsewhere in
the poem—evoke the rhythms of an official report—it's easy to imagine this speech being
written in a government office!

Was he free? ...

... certainly have heard.

“The Unknown Citizen” Symbols

Symbol Bureaucratic Departments

Bureaucratic Departments

The poem makes numerous references throughout to different government (or government-
affiliated) institutions. The "Bureau of Statistics," for example, is tasked with making the
assessment of whether anyone ever complained about the unknown citizen. The banal-
sounding, capitalized titles of these institutions give an official air to something that is
actually oppressive and sinister. Auden uses these to satirize the bureaucratization and
standardization of society, criticizing the intent behind these government organizations. This
intent, the poem implies, is to reduce life to data, and to know everything about individual
lives in a way that can be quantified, recorded, and analyzed.

These institutions are over-reaching, even to the point of looking into the unknown
citizen's relationships with his friends (the responsibility of the "Social Psychology"
department). Over the course of the poem, then, Auden uses these departments to build an
argument against State governments becoming too big, invasive, and controlling.

Where this symbol appears in the poem:

 Line 1: “Bureau of Statistics”

Line 5: “Greater Community”

Line 10: “Union”

Line 11: “Union”

Line 12: “Social Psychology”

Line 14: “The Press”

Line 17: “Health-card”

Line 18: “Producers Research and High-Grade Living”

Line 19: “Instalment Plan”

Line 22: “Public Opinion”

Line 26: “Eugenist”

Symbol The Modern Man

The Modern Man

Lines 20-21 give the reader a glimpse into the domestic life of the unknown citizen,
referred to by the speaker as a "Modern Man." First, it's worth nothing how this phrase
sounds like ad-speak—it's a kind of idealized image that probably doesn't have much bearing
in reality. That is, in reality there is no one modern man—people come in all forms and
characters. The dead man in this poem is reduced to an anonymous entity—the "unknown
citizen"—but this was happening while he was a live too (the "Modern Man").

The "Modern Man" is thus a symbol of shallow conformity. There is an emptiness to the
idea that what a modern needs can be summed up by a record player, radio, car, and a fridge
—this is distinctly lacking in any kind of individuality whatsoever. It is instead a hollow
image of happiness, a false promise not dissimilar to the way advertising and marketing sell
people dreams of a better life. Ironically, this supposed achievement of individual happiness
—acquiring all the essential belongings of modern man—actually amounts to a kind of
conformity.

Where this symbol appears in the poem:

Lines 20-21: “And had everything necessary to the Modern Man, / A phonograph, a
radio, a car and a frigidaire.”
“The Unknown Citizen” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Alliteration

"The Unknown Citizen" features some some key instances of alliteration. The first occurs
across lines 7 and 8:

He worked in a factory and never got fired,

But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.

This section describes the unknown citizen's working life. The repeated /f/ links "factory,"
"fired," and "Fudge" together, the forceful sound suggesting the power and might of the state-
approved corporation.

In lines 14, 16, and 17, alliteration is used to give the poem a particular rhythmic sound.
The placement of "Press" and "paper," "Policies" and "prove," and "Health-card" and
"hospital" are all quite uniform—the start of the line and roughly halfway through. The
prominence of the alliterating sound thus becomes a kind of regular, bureaucratic process—
like stamps being pressed onto official documents.

Next up is the phrase "Modern Man" in line 20. The alliteration here makes it sound like an
advertising slogan, or some kind of ideologically-inspired concept thought up by the state.
This reflects the poem's broader ideas about freedom and conformity in the modern world;
society sells people an image of what a good life looks like, and people are compelled to
recreate this image, thinking it will bring them happiness.

Another striking example of alliteration comes in line 24, in which the speaker discusses
how the unknown citizen always held the officially-endorsed opinions:

When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
 The idea here is to create a kind of echo—representing the way the dead man would
always repeat what he was meant to. So when the State said "peace," he said "peace" too.

Where alliteration appears in the poem:

Line 7: “factory,” “fired”

Line 8: “Fudge”

Line 12: “Social Psychology”

Line 14: “Press,” “paper”

Line 16: “Policies,” “prove”

Line 17: “his Health-card,” “he,” “was once,” “hospita,” “cured”

Line 20: “Modern Man”

Line 23: “he held”

Line 24: “peace,” “peace,” “war,” “went”

Line 25: “population”

Line 26: “parent”

Line 28: “Was,” “he,” “Was,” “he happy”

Allusion

Where allusion appears in the poem:

Line 8: “Fudge Motors Inc.”

Line 19: “Instalment Plan”

Caesura

Where caesura appears in the poem:

Line 8: “employers, Fudge”

Line 21: “phonograph, a,” “radio, a”

Line 24: “peace, he,” “peace: when,” “war, he”

 Line 28: “free?,” “ Was,” “happy? The”

Line 29: “wrong, we”

End-Stopped Line

Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:

Line 2: “complaint,”

Line 4: “saint,”

Line 5: “Community.”

Line 7: “fired,”

Line 8: “Inc.”

Line 9: “views,”

Line 10: “dues,”

Line 11: “sound)”

Line 13: “drink.”

Line 15: “way.”

Line 16: “insured,”

Line 17: “cured.”

Line 20: “Man,”

Line 21: “frigidaire.”

Line 23: “year;”

Line 24: “went.”

Line 25: “population,”

Line 26: “generation.”

Line 27: “education.”

Line 28: “absurd:”

Line 29: “heard.”

Enjambment

Where enjambment appears in the poem:

Lines 1-2: “be / One”

Lines 3-4: “agree / That”

Lines 6-7: “retired / He”

Lines 12-13: “found / That”

Lines 14-15: “day / And”

Lines 18-19: “declare / He”

Lines 19-20: “Plan / And”

Lines 22-23: “content / That”

Irony

Where irony appears in the poem:

Before Line 1

Lines 1-29

Rhetorical Question

Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:

Line 28: “Was he free? Was he happy?”

“The Unknown Citizen” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in
the order in which they appear in the poem.

Bureau Fudge Motors Inc. Scab Union Mates Instalment Plan Phonograph Frigidaire
Eugenist

(Location in poem: Line 1: “Bureau”)

An office dedicated to a particular part of government business.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Unknown Citizen”

Form

"The Unknown Citizen" is a deeply ironic poem that takes the form of a parody. These are
words to mark the unveiling of a statue dedicated to a "citizen" known only by his
identification number. The speech is meant to be a kind of elegy commemorating this man's
death and celebrate his exemplary life—which was exemplary only because he behaved
exactly as the state wanted. Like a parasite, the state has taken hold a form usually meant to
express deep emotion, sincere sentiment, and genuine regret, and instead uses it here to make
tribute to somebody for their sheer conformity.

Though the poem is rhymed and has some metrical elements, the form is just one long
stanza of 29 lines (with an epitaph at the beginning). This makes it quite prose-like—indeed,
the poem avoids sounding beautiful or emotionally moving, and reads more like a
presentation given in a conference room. Essentially, it is a list of all the thing the unknown
citizen did right during his life, and the various ways that he was closely watched by the state.
Two rhetorical questions at the poem's end indicate that "freedom" and "happiness" are
"absurd" concepts in this particular dystopia.

Meter

"The Unknown Citizen" does use meter, but not in a particularly consistent way. The poem
is based mostly around the anapest, which is a three-syllable foot that goes da-da-DUM
(unstressed-unstressed-stressed). But there are variations in meter and line length throughout.
Lines 9 and 10 come close to being purely anapestic (though both substitutions):

Yet he was- | n't a scab | or odd | in his views,

For his U- | nion reports | that he paid | his dues,

The loosely anapestic sound gives the poem a sing-song quality, which is deliberately at
odds with the supposedly serious occasion (this contrast between the poem's lighthearted tone
and sinister content is part of the poem's overall irony). But the meter is intentionally clunky
and cumbersome throughout the poem, giving it a stop-start feel too—as though the music of
the poem is under constant interruption. That's because the poem is in the voice of a faceless
bureaucrat, or the state itself—not a usual source of beautiful poetry. At times, the poem
sounds more like a presentation than a tribute.

Rhyme Scheme

"The Unknown Citizen" uses rhyme throughout, but there is no regular rhyme scheme.
Sometimes the poem uses rhymes one after another, creating neat and tidy couplets, and
sometimes these rhymes sounds are more spread out. For example, line 8's end-word "Inc."
doesn't chime with its partner until line 13 ("drink"). On the other hand, lines 6 and 7 rhyme
together directly ("retired" and "fired").

Perhaps the rhyming is used to establish the poem's sense of irony—this is not a real elegy,
but rather a mock one. It's a parody of what is usually a heartfelt expression of emotion—and
the inability to emote properly is part of the state's problem (or what Auden sees as its
problem). That is, the state doesn't really sympathize with the dead man—and so it's rhyming
seems appropriately random and insincere.

That is, there's a massive disconnect between the almost frivolous rhyming sounds with the
seriousness of the subject—which, after all, is a man's entire life. Again, take the
aforementioned couplet in lines 6 and 7:

Except for the War till the day he retired

He worked in a factory and never got fired,

 These lines account for the unknown citizen's whole career, but they sound more like a
limerick or a nursery rhyme. If the speaker of the poem—the state itself or a state
representative—sincerely admires the unknown citizen, perhaps they would strike a more
somber tone in the discussion of his death.

Towards the end of the poem, three lines rhyme in a row (25-27):

He was married and added five children to the population,

Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.

And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.

These are distinctly unattractive rhymes, all relying on the ending "-tion." These make the
lines read more like official documentation that has been turned into poetry in a way that fails
to hide its original source. Remember, this is meant to be a tribute—but reads more like a
bureaucratic report into the efficiency of human life.

The poem also uses some internal rhyme/assonance to build this tension between what is
being said and the way it is being said. In line 5, for example, "he" chimes with the end-word
"Community," and in line 14 "paper" links with "day." These just add to the oddly chirpy
sound of the poem, deliberately used to highlight the inappropriateness of the speaker to the
occasion.

“The Unknown Citizen” Speaker

The speaker in "The Unknown Citizen" is a representative of the state—the government

and related institutions.

The epitaph that precedes the actual poem indicates that this is a kind of speech at the
unveiling of a statue. This statue commemorates a dead man—the "unknown citizen"—and
praises his life throughout. The poem builds a picture of an extremely invasive state that
watches its citizens' every move—and approves of this particular man because he never did
anything that wasn't officially allowed. He went to war when he was meant to, never
questioned anything, had the "proper" opinions, and so on.
 From this, then, it's fair to deduce that the speaker is either the state itself or someone
officially representing the state. This is part of the poem's overall ironic tone, the faceless
state taking the place of what should be a loved one or a friend (the normal speakers at this
kind of solemn occasion). The speaker also uses the passive voice throughout—"He was
found," etc.—which creates a kind of distance between the man and the powers that be
(suggesting they are beyond accountability). It's not until the last line when the speaker
actually refers to themselves with pronoun, using the sinister "we"—suggesting that there is
no escaping the watchful eye of state.

“The Unknown Citizen” Setting

The poem doesn't specify its setting, but the epitaph that comes at the start suggests that
this is an official occasion. The state is unveiling a "marble monument" to the dead man, and
accordingly this is meant to be a solemn and sober speech. What follows is a kind of list of all
the ways that the unknown citizen followed the party line, doing everything exactly as his
government wanted him to (which is why he is being commemorated). This list, then, gives
an overview of the dead man's life, ranging from his work to his family, from his personal
views to his household possessions. This builds a picture of an invasive surveillance society,
with no action—or even thought—taking place without it being known to the state. The
atmosphere of the poem is suffocating and oppressive, rather than sad and profound.

This world feels dystopian, but there are many hints that Auden is satirizing modern
society as we actually know it. The references to "Fudge Motor Company" alludes to actual
industry, for instance, while lines 20-21 suggest an average middle class home at the time of
the poem's writing:

And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,

A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.

The poem is skewering modern society by taking things to an extreme conclusion, wherein
there are bureaucratic departments devoted to optimizing every aspect of life, down to the
number of children someone has. The poem isn't limited to a critique of a single economic of
philosophical outlook, and instead takes aim at the conformity and oppression of modern life
in general. And while much of this seems absurd, part of the poem's point is that society
already does a lot of this—society already ties people's worth to the productivity, already
teaches people to buy certain products to feel successful (like cars and radios, though today
that would probably be replaced with flat screen TVs); and already dictates what should and
should not make people happy.

Literary and Historical Context of “The Unknown Citizen”

Literary Context

"The Unknown Citizen" was written in 1939, shortly after W.H. Auden emigrated from the
U.K. to the U.S.A. The poem was first published in the New Yorker magazine, before
appearing in Auden's collection, Another Time (1940). It appears alongside some of Auden's
most well-known poems, such as "Musée des Beaux Arts," "Funeral Blues," and "September
1, 1939." Like those poems, "The Unknown Citizen" uses a lightness of touch and Auden's
characteristic humor to explore a heavy subject.

Generally speaking, "The Unknown Citizen" fits into the genre of dystopian literature. This
refers to works which deal with nightmarish alternative worlds that are usually grounded in a
modern trend taken to an extreme. 1984, which is probably the quintessential work of
dystopian literature, portrays a world in which an individual's every action and thought are
monitored and assessed by the state. Indeed, that's precisely what is going on this poem
(which predates the publication of 1984 by a decade).

It's worth noting that the tone and voice of the poem borrow from the sound of official
government bureaucracy. State literature—e.g., the instructions found at passport control—
are often written in passive voice, as if there is no real human being behind the speech. The
faceless "we" in this poem gives no indication about the identity of the speaker other than that
they represent the state.

Furthermore, while this poem looks on the surface like a kind of elegy, it reads more like
an official presentation made in a board room. The elegy is one of the oldest poetic forms,
and to read some that are more conventional and less ironic try Walt Whitman's "O Captain!
My Captain!," Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," or, for something
more contemporary, Emily Berry's "Freud's Beautiful Things."

Historical Context
 "The Unknown Citizen" was written in 1939, around the outbreak of World War II. With
the world facing another global catastrophe, questions about what kind of society people
wanted to live in were pressing concerns. The atrocities of Nazi Germany, for example, were
a horrific attempt to prioritize the so-called master race above those people considered
inferior. Eugenics—the pseudoscientific attempt to purify humanity—is referred to line 26 of
the poem, in which it is implied that a chief "Eugenist" dictates how many children people
should have. Eugenics, however, is by no means limited to Hitler's ideology, with various
groups and organizations talking up its virtues throughout the 20th century and even in the
present day.

One of the most interesting aspects about "The Unknown Citizen" is the way that it takes
aim at two very different ideologically-driven societies. In its overbearing bureaucracy and
state surveillance, the poem clearly gestures towards the Soviet Union and its methods for
top-down control of its citizens. Bloated and invasive institutions like the "Bureau of
Statistics" or "High-Grade Living" have roots in their historical counterparts in Soviet Russia.
Indeed, the "Instalment Plan" is most likely an allusion to Soviet Union's Five-Year Plans,
which instigated sweeping changes to society in an effort to turn the country into an
economic superpower.

But the poem also seems to take aim at another dominant world ideology: capitalist
consumerism. This, of course, has much more in common with the American Dream than
with any Russian vision. The "Modern Man" sounds like an mid-20th century advertising
concept, and "Fudge Motors Inc." appears to be a reference to Henry Ford's company, Ford
Motor (which was responsible for much of the standardization of life at which Auden takes
aim). The personal possessions referred to in line 21 speak to the idea that an individual's
status can be demonstrated by the things they own, which is no less an ideology than
communism (though may be more subtle in the way it takes hold).

More “The Unknown Citizen” Resources

External Resources

The Elegy Form — Ten brilliant elegies, taken from the classical era all the way up to the
contemporary.

The Five-Year Plans — An educational resource looking at the way Russia restructured its
society in the 20th century.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier — More information about the Tomb that exists in
Arlington National Cemetary.
In Auden's Own Voice — "The Unknown Citizen" read by the poet himself.

Auden's Life and Work — A valuable resource from the Poetry Foundation.